Fig wasp
Videos
Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside fig syconia. Some are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant. The non-pollinators belong to several
Blastophaga psenes
Pleistodontes sp. female
Ceratosolen species are pollinators of the Sycomorus, Sycocarpus and Neomorphe sections of Ficus.
Non-pollinating parasitoid wasps Apocrypta ovipositing on Ficus sur in South Africa
The genus Ficus is composed of 800 species of vines, shrubs, and trees, defined by their syconiums, the fruit-like vessels that either hold female flowers or pollen on the inside. In addition to being
Fig wasp
…cycle to begin again. The fig–wasp mutualism originated between 70 and 90 million years ago as the product of a unique evolutionary event. Since then, cocladogenesis and coadaptation on a coarse scale between wasp genera and fig sections have been demonstrated by both morphological and molecular studies. This illustrates the tendency towards coradiation of figs and wasps. Such strict…
The many tiny matured, seed-bearing gynoecia, seen in an overripe common fig; these are not visible at the time of pollination by the fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes.